Chapter 22. Some Like it Hot?
Teaser Tsukimi sees Shuu with Inari and makes a run for it. Kuranosuke's secret identity risks exposure. Summary Kuranosuke categorizes three modes for Tsukimi: Amars mode, After mode, and Awakened mode. He is truly impressed with her Awakened mode and thinks about how to use it to start a brand. His ambition is a bit more fantasy than realistic. Oblivious to everything else, Tsukimi works on the second dress and needle-stabs Kuranosuke out of his high-reaching fantasy. Shuu and Inari arrive at the house while Mr. Koibuchi is having coffee with Jiji and Chieko, the former two bonding over cafés. Despite Shuu trying to get rid of her, Inari manages to ring the doorbell. Mr. Koibuchi calls Kuranosuke to answer it, but Tsukimi won't let him move while he's wearing the unfinished dress and goes to answer the door herself. As she leaves, Kuranosuke admires her Awakened mode. On her way to get the door, Tsukimi tries to analyze what's happening to her. She feels like her body is on fire and her jellyfish-loving blood is singing in her veins. Her good mood is ruined when she sees Shuu and Inari at the gate. Shuu is pulling on her wrist, trying to get her to stop while begging "Please, come over here." Inari keeps up her act and tells Shuu to stop or they'll get seen. Tsukimi takes the scene before her at face value. She returns to Kuranosuke, looking stricken before stuttering that she's going home. Kuranosuke is disappointed that Awakened mode is over so quickly. Tsukimi escapes the house through an open window, rather than have to pass by Shuu and Inari at the gate again. She frets even more about what is happening to her and feels like she's not even in control of herself anymore. She felt hot from working on the dress and then cold at the sight of Shuu with Inari. It hurts and her left had never put her through things like this before. It all changed that night Kuranosuke saw her thrown to the ground outside the pet store. Tsukimi wonders if "normal" people feel like this all the time. To make herself feel better, she takes a warm water bath. After Tsukimi's gone, Kuranosuke finds Chieko and Jiji with his father, who introduces him to them as his second son. Chieko and Jiji believe they misheard, and try to clarify the word "jinan" with similar sounding words, including a reference to Daisuke Jigen from the classic manga Lupin. Eventually, they are forced to accept that "Kurako" was just called a second son, and Kuranosuke laughs like it's a joke and introduces himself as the jinan. Mayaya and Banba get excited about Chieko and Jiji's absence on the night of the weekly hotpot party. Mostly, because that means they get to choose the food themselves and go as extravagant as they want. Banba calls it a "hotpot doup d'etat." Tsukimi isn't particularly enthused, wanting to keep the food the usual. Mayaya and Banba are surprised. Mayaya tells her that she's too young to be afraid of taking risks, while Banba offers a compromise of half the usual and half kimchi sauce. Tsukimi goes along with them to the market, but hangs back. She pictures Shuu and Inari at the gate and closes her eyes against the pain. In her mind, she starts talking to her mother about how tired she is, and how so much has happened since she met Kuranosuke. She recallss Kuranosuke the morning she discovered he was a boy, and the picture on Inari's cell phone. Later, staring at the spicy hotpot, she says to herself firmly that she doesn't want any more stimulation in her life. Hanamori returns from the dermatologist's after having received a shot and medicine. Inari, having locked herself in the Mercedes, exclaims over his hives having disappeared. Shuu ignores the news entirely and yells for Hanamori to take Inari away and dump her somewhere. Characters in Order of Appearance Quotes * Trivia *The chapter title comes from the 1959 movie of the same name starring Marilyn Monroe. References Category:Manga Category:Volume 4